by Beth Byers
Medea the last weeks. She’d been nervous, anxious, nightmare-ridden, and clinging. If anything, Medea was fearless.
Ariadne shook her head. “Sweet, fiery, blind Hecate. My god Echo, Circe.”
Echo stared at Ari. “We were so mad at her,” Echo breathed. “For Lindsey and grieving him. For making us have to run.”
Ariadne’s eyes were raw as she added, “She was so angry with us because of the bootlegging.”
“What’s bootlegging?” Margot demanded.
Ari and Echo were too busy hating themselves to answer.
“Has Circe been acting out of character?” Lucian asked.
“She’s always been fluttery and attracted to the beautiful,” Ari said.
“She’s a siren,” Echo told them. “We’re all a bunch of mutts in America. Only Ari is a nature witch like Mama and grandfather. Circe is a siren. I edge towards necromancy.”
“If you’re a necromancer,” Margot started, “how do we know you aren’t the one?”
“Bring your own truth serum over, watch me swallow it, and ask me again. It wasn’t me. Mama would be so disappointed in us,” Echo said to Ariadne.
Ari closed her eyes. “She should be.”
“Your mother doesn’t expect you to be perfect,” Mrs. Langford told them.
Echo and Ariadne looked at each other and then back at Mrs. Langford.
It was Echo who said, “No, never.”
Ariadne added, “She expected us to love one another, look after each other, and apologize when we mess up.”
Echo snapped to her feet. “We need a plan about the ghosts. That’s on me.”
Ari joined her. “I need to cleanse Medea. I don’t think Circe will let us do that to her.”
“So what will you do?” Margot asked them.
“What would you do if it were Hadley?” Echo asked Margot flatly.
The truth serum was still in effect and Margot answered clearly, “Whatever it took.”
“See. We’re all the Wode here.”
Chapter 15
MAY 1922, LONDON, ENGLAND
ARIADNE EUDORA WISTERIA WODE
Lucian Blacke followed Ariadne from the parlor and when she went to run up the stairs, he called, “I am quite a good healer.”
She paused on the stairs and turned slowly, wondering if she could trust him. An unexpected truth serum should have been enough, especially given that none of them could have anticipated what Echo had done.
“I also know where the spell laboratory was in this house.”
“Nara can tell me,” Ariadne told him.
“Nara is communicating with you already?”
Ari looked up and saw both of the Wodes standing in the doorway of the parlor. Ariadne nodded. Margot shook her head and returned to the parlor but Hadley Wode paused and said, “I’m not very talented. I never focused all that hard, to be honest, but I’ll lend you what ability I have.”
Ariadne felt the tears pressed against the back of her eyes and then Mr. Blacke told her gently, “You know what is happening with both of your sisters. Who could anticipate dark magic and ghosts on a ship? We can fix this.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“I have two little girls as well, Miss Wode.”
“If we’re going to be counteracting dark magic, I think you’d better call me Ariadne.”
He laughed and then Ariadne turned and went for her sisters. Cassie had been acting mostly like herself, but there was no scenario where they both weren’t going through the cleansing.
Ariadne found the girls and they left Faith arranging their room and freshening it. Ariadne examined the wards in the bedroom and then took each of them by the hand.
“What are we doing?” Cassie asked. Medea clutched Ari’s hand, but her eyes were brighter. It was the house, Ariadne thought, and the long standing wards. Even weakened, Nara was making a difference on Medea.
Ariadne paused and remembered the sight of Medea spinning in the garden. Not, Ari thought, the spell laboratory. The garden. It would work so much better for Ariadne’s magic especially with Medea showing signs of nature magic as well.
Ariadne brought the girls down to the parlor and Mrs. Langford reached for them, kissing them both on the head and then asked, “May I come?”
“I’d like to do this to you as well, Mrs. Langford. And I wonder if you’d let me put some wards on your skin and give you something to protect you.”
“I want those things for my children,” Mrs. Langford told Ariadne.
“We’re going to take care of all of you,” Ariadne promised.
Lucian’s brows lifted as Ariadne led the way to the garden, the girls next to her, the adults trailing after. She wandered the garden for a while before she found a patch of grass, surrounded by chestnut trees and lavender. Ariadne glanced at Echo, who held up a bag.
Ariadne made the pentacle by parting the grass. She took candles from Echo and lit them, placing them at each of the points of the pentacle and then brought Medea into the center.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re starting a new life,” Ari told her. “You’ve been glum. We’ve all been blue. Sad to be away from home.”
“I miss Mama,” Medea said quietly. “I miss feeling like she looks over me.”
“Mama can see us anywhere. She’s so high over us that she can see us anywhere.” Ariadne ran her thumb down Medea’s nose. “I think something happened to us and it has kept us a little bluer than we would have been. I’m going to put some wards on you and cleanse our house. Mr. Blacke, Echo, and Mr. Hadley Wode are going to help me.”
“Are you going to have the same? You have to be safe too, Ari.”
Ariadne nodded. “We all will, but you’re going to go first. Then Cass.”
Medea nodded as Ari took her sister down to the small shorts and camisole and then slowly covered her skin with wards while Echo and Ari hummed. Most witches didn’t use music in their magic, but they couldn’t help but do it having been raised with Circe. Lucian and Hadley didn’t join into the music, but they lent their magic.
Ariadne drew runes up her sister’s spine and then around her wrists and on each palm. She circled Medea’s waist, her chest, and then put the final one on the back of Medea’s neck. As she worked, Ariadne opened her gaze wide to the sight and saw the slightest, slimmest tendrils of darkness pull away from Medea’s aura. What disturbed Ari most of all was the number of black strands that came away.
“It’s so subtle,” Lucian murmured, “no wonder it’s so easily missed.”
Ariadne let go of the power while Medea hopped up. The difference was overt. The normal light was back in her eyes, she grinned at Ariadne and said, “Those trees are better climbing trees than the ones at home. Can we stay here?”
“Yes,” Ariadne said. “Look around. This garden is magic, and it needs us.”
Medea hopped out of the pentacle like a bunny. She threw herself at Echo. “I want cake.”
“You can have all the cake you want,” Echo said, wiping a tear away. “Hecate, I feel so stupid.”
The process on Cassiopeia took less time because Medea had been a better target. They worked through Echo and Mrs. Langford who straightly refused to disrobe until Margot Wode found Mrs. Langford a kimono that kept her mostly covered.
Mrs. Langford was clean while Ari and Echo both needed the aura cleansing with Ariadne’s number of black strands higher than anyone but Medea. Ariadne stood and looked around. A brightness was filtering into her. It was the equivalent of being ill for some time and finally feeling better. Even though you weren’t back to yourself, you felt so good it was as though you were flying.
Once Mrs. Langford went into the house to change, Ariadne looked at Echo.
“There’s a reason that she was unaffected while we weren’t.”
“She might have been unaffected because she had less magic to feed on,” Lucian Blacke said, but it was clear he didn’t believe it any more than Ariadne.
“She was unaffected,” Margot snapped, “because someone who cares about her didn’t aim anything at her. Sooner or later, they’ll lose control. This isn’t a necromancer who has the skill to work with the dead. Ghost and afterlife spells for non-necromancers are inherently weaker and darker for witches who aren’t naturally dark.”
“Necromancy isn’t a dark magic,” Echo told Margot. “Any more than nature magic is dark.”
“Tell that to your Medea after what you peeled away from her.”
Ariadne faced Margot. “It’s not my fault you didn’t have the magic.”
“Delilah changed the spell of inheritance.”
“I don’t think so—” Ari started.
“Of course you don’t.”
“Look at this house,” Ari said evenly. “The wards are drained. The only magic that was kept up was the garden’s magic. She didn’t have the power to change the primogeniture spells.”
“Then why are you the new Wode?”
“Because,” Ariadne ground out, “Delilah Wode returned the spell to the original. The deeper magic.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It does,” Lucian said, “and you know it. A few generations ago, like many families, the Wode changed the original spells to make the money and houses go to the oldest child.”
“Margot,” her brother Hadley said patiently, “Delilah loved the gardens here more than anything. She knew we wouldn’t have been able to keep that magic up. She told me she was going to return it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Margot hissed.
“Because I didn’t want you to hate me for not spending my childhood learning and growing. I could have been the next Wode. You could have been what you wanted to be if I had made the effort.”
Margot stepped back.
“We both know I have more natural talent than you.”
She pressed her hand to her throat.
“But I didn’t do that. I didn’t do any of that, and now we have second rate rooms and not enough money for you to have new dresses.”
Margot’s breath caught. She fled the garden.
Hadley turned to Ariadne and Lucian. “I’ve always been lazy. Margot never should have gotten her hopes up. Delilah only loved her sister and this garden.”
“I’m sorry I was so blunt.”
“We deserved it,” Hadley told her. “Welcome to England, Miss Wode. I’m glad the garden will survive.”
“You could help with that,” Ariadne told him. “You and Margot both. This doesn’t have to be our house alone. Let alone the other Wode houses. If this house is this bad, what are the other houses like? My sisters and I can’t do all of it.”
Hadley paused long enough for Lucian to say, “It’s a generous offer.”
Ariadne shook her head and glanced at the garden. Parts of it were withering. There was so much magic here that needed to be renewed and maintained. “You can think about it. Circe is far enough affected that she doesn’t want to be here. I need my sister back.”
“You need to keep Medea and Cassiopeia in Wode house until their auras fully recover,” Lucian warned. “It takes a few weeks for auras to heal just as it would lungs.”
Ariadne nodded and then paused, staring back at the house. The mansion that she’d never deserved. “We live in a strange and mysterious world.”
“We’re witches, standing in a magical garden, near a pentacle, dealing with the aftermath of someone dabbling with ghosts.” His grin—perhaps the first time she’d seen a real smile on him—was devastating. “I’d say so.”
Ariadne couldn’t help but smile back, even knowing they had a fight ahead of them.
Chapter 16
MAY 1922, LONDON, ENGLAND
ARIADNE EUDORA WISTERIA WODE
Ariadne approached Mrs. Langford’s house just as the moon peaked overhead. Lucian and Echo were behind her. Ari glanced at the house and then she stopped as both Margot and Hadley Wode stepped from the shadows near the house to join them.
“Ari.”
Ariadne faced Echo, who was staring at the house.
“I can feel it. Something is happening.”
“The Langfords aren’t witches,” Margot said.
“They weren’t,” Lucian said softly. “They haven’t been. Since Mr. Langford’s line has gone fallow.”
“The most likely people to do this are uneducated,” Echo said. “Let’s say Mrs. Langford told her children what she knew or they overheard her, read her diary, something. There’s no way the Langford children wouldn’t find something supernatural coming from a line of witches.”
“Wait,” Ariadne whispered. “Mrs. Langford knows of magic, but she married into this family. We sense each other. Mrs. Langford had enough ability to recognize something in us and you, Mr. Blacke. But it was her husband’s line that was the one where abilities went fallow. Correct?”
“Correct,” he said, understanding immediately. “Mrs. Langford’s family might also have a weak or fallow line. Together? It might have been enough for the two lines to reinvigorate in at least one of the children.”
“That would make sense,” Margot said. “What makes even more sense is that one of the children who traveled to America with Mrs. Langford got an idea of what they were there and has been experimenting.”
“Why go immediately to the dead? The first question I had for my mother when she started teaching me was how long it would take me to learn how to fly.”
Lucian laughed and admitted, “I tried for quite a long time.”
Ariadne said, “Let’s put the runes up.”
They split and made their way around the exterior of the house with athamés out. Each of them carved their runes into the house and then Ariadne entered the house when Mrs. Langford opened the front door and went up to the bedroom where Circe was staying. Echo was only a step behind Ari as she opened the door and blew a handful of dust into the room before shutting the door.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
Ari shrugged, unwilling to speak for doubts. She traced a warding rune on the bedroom door. If what they’d begun didn’t work, Ariadne would take her sister captive and hold her in a pentacle until she was back to herself. She went down to the parlor where she and Lucian drew a pentacle and performed a cleansing ritual on the Langford house.
“Will this work?” Mrs. Langford asked. Her eyes were wide and horrified. “Is whatever happened because of one of my children?”
“Were your family witches too?” Ariadne asked. “Are you from a fallow line?”
Mrs. Langford paused and then admitted, “My family name is Wildes. We don’t practice. We haven’t for quite some time.”
“Sweet fiery Hecate.” Ariadne rose inside of the pentacle and stepped out of it, joined by Lucian. “My goodness.”
“What does that mean?” Lucian asked.
“Sarah Wildes was one of the women killed during the Salem Witch trials. Most of them were innocent.” Ari paused and then told him, “All of them were innocent. They were good women. They were kind. Generous healers, they did what they could in a world where it was impossible to be anything different. She could have left, but she didn’t. She stayed and took the punishment given to her because it distracted them from those who were able to hide.”
“She was a good woman,” Mrs. Langford said in a hushed tone. “We were terrified after. My family stopped practicing, they towed the normal line, they hid it all, they married non-witches. I always wanted to learn, but after years of not practicing, magic was just a family legend. I tried to learn. I couldn’t do anything worthwhile. I identified with Stuart.”
“Is that your husband?” Echo asked softly.
Mrs. Langford nodded. “He tried to learn too. We bonded over our mutual incapacity.”
“Your mutual incapacity but legitimate bloodlines were sufficient to give your children a chance at the abilities. It’s very possible one of them could do this. It’s also very possible that they don’t have any idea what they�
�re doing.”
Ariadne stared at Mrs. Langford, running through her mind over all the possibilities. “I want to say it’s Nanette because I like her least, but—” She glanced down at her hands. “There was another witch on the ship. Mr. Porter? He knew your family?”
“Porter?” Mrs. Langford nodded. “He’s my husband’s assistant. We went to visit my family, but their offices are there. Both Harvey and Mr. Porter worked while we were in America.”
“I castrated him,” Ariadne told Lucian. “I used blood and magic and it will fade in weeks, but—it hasn’t yet. He was handsy, and I was angry.”
“I know that spell,” Lucian said. His eyes glinted at her. “I taught it to my sister myself.”
Ariadne took hold of her pentacle necklace and glanced outside. “And Harvey saw me do it. It might have intrigued him enough to act on something else? Then there’s the fact that Circe isn’t very good at hiding who we are, and she spent quite a lot of time with your daughter. I’m sorry Mrs. Langford. Maybe we should just ask them who is dabbling.”
“We can’t ask them. It’ll be totally ineffective,” Lucian said. “Whatever they found, whatever they’re doing, it’s a dark spirt who is changing the very way they think. We need to figure out what the spell is and counter it. Your Circe wouldn’t come with you to Wode house. There’s a reason for that.”
“Why don’t we take them all back to Wode house? We’ll put them into locked rooms, let the wards of Wode house take effect, and then ask them?”
“Perhaps as last resort?” Mrs. Langford suggested. “I don’t think my husband will appreciate it if we put three of our children in captivity. I’m afraid people will talk.”
“Circe is not to be discounted or taken lightly,” Ariadne warned them. “If she’s being affected by spirits, she’s dangerous.”
“She doesn’t seem dangerous,” Mrs. Langford said. “She seems snivelly and vain.”